178 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



weak colonies, or wherever it will do most good. In no 

 case, however, would it be a prudent thing in this locality 

 to follow the recommendation of some, by putting the 

 brood on a new stand without any bees, trusting to the 

 warmth of the weather to hatch out young bees fast 

 enough to care for the brood. If such a colony — if you 

 can call it a colony — should not fall a prey to the robbers, 

 there would in most cases be a serious loss of brood from 

 starvation and chilling. 



NO FORCED SWARMING TILL QUEEN-CELLS STARTED. 



In no case did I practice this forced swarming till I 

 found by the presence of queen-cells that the bees were 

 thinking of swarming. There would be less labor in the 

 long run (supposing that all wxre to be swarmed sooner 

 or later), to do up the whole business at a suitable time, 

 without waiting for the bees to take the initiative. In- 

 deed, conditions may be such in some localities that there 

 might be a loss to wait for queen-cells. 



But the harvests here are such that it is usually better 

 to have swarming delayed. Moreover, a good many of 

 my colonies, if let alone, will go through the entire season 

 without attempting to swarm, and such colonies are the 

 very ones that give the best yields, and forced swarming 

 would be practiced upon them only at a loss. 



DISADVANTAGE OF FORCED SWARMING. 



With all the advantage forced swarming has over 

 natural swarming, it still leaves something to be desired. 

 As already said, those colonies which hold their force in- 

 tact throughout the entire season are the ones that give 

 the best results. It is true that in forced swarming the 

 entire force of bees may be left on the old stand, but there 

 are thousands of prospective bees in the brood taken 

 away. If you take away that brood to-day, you are tak- 

 ing away the bees of to-morrow, and of twenty more days 

 to come. 



